Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Are these elephants willfully lugging Hermes bags across the plains of India? Did the photographer just luck upon this scene in the wild? Probably not. These elephants are being used as models. But unlike Kate Moss, these animals may not be reaping the full benefits of their work. That said, is it possible that they are enjoying the attention, the strange lights, the nice food, the funny, fussy people, and the sense of purpose that a being a model bestows? I'd say yes, it's possible. People can be in a rush to cry "cruelty!" when, in fact, the animals might just enjoy a little bit of human folly.

This site is generally about our visceral, inexplicable, and sometimes ecstatic connection to animals and/or artistic representations of animals. It attempts to understand what animals mean to us both as living creatures and as powerful symbols that reach deep into our mind's eye and shape many aspects of our own consciousness.

Anthroporphism is something we seem biologically programed to do. As humans, we are prone to sentimentalize objects, ideas, and of course, animals to fit our perceptual, behavioral, and emotional apparatus. Since we can never fully comprehend the inner life of an animal, how shall we treat their "otherness" as we share life on Earth together? With respect to be certain. Still, we are left with our own skewed and humanized impressions, which manifest over and over in our culture - powerful reminders of our chosen "departure" from the nature and our animal cousins.